Looking into Asian opportunities? Join us at our 3rd annual TheTicketingBusiness ASIA 2024 in Hong Kong [14-15-16 October]
Our global meeting returns to Manchester 28-29-30 April 2025 - Register for your #TBF25 Super Earlybird rate here

Legal

Ticketmaster faces class action lawsuit over Drake tickets

Featured image credit: The Come Up Show/ CC BY 2.0/ Edited for size

Ticketmaster is facing a class action lawsuit over the cost of ticket prices to see Canadian rapper Drake, according to reports.

The Toronto Star reported that Montreal-based law firm LPC Avocat has filed a class action lawsuit against Ticketmaster over allegedly price gauging tickets for Drake’s upcoming ‘It’s All a Blur’ tour. 

The newspaper obtained a complaint submitted by a Montreal resident who purchased two ‘Official Platinum’ seats for Drake’s concert at the Bell Centre on July 14, for C$789.54 (£470/€30/$570) each. 

The following day saw a new show added for July 15 with the same seats costing roughly C$350 less. 

LPC Avocat alleged that Ticketmaster knew about the extra date in advance and withheld the information, selling the ‘Official Platinum’ seats “at an artificially inflated premium price in bad faith”. 

The application for the class action said: “Ticketmaster unilaterally decides which tickets it advertises and sells as ‘Official Platinum’ based on a given event. The result is that most, if not all, of the tickets advertised and sold as ‘Official Platinum’ are neither ‘premium tickets’ nor ‘some of the best seats in the house’ and are, in fact, just regular tickets sold by Ticketmaster at an artificially inflated premium in bad faith.”

According to the report, plaintiffs are seeking “compensatory damages in the aggregate amount of the difference between the prices charged for ‘Official Platinum’ tickets and what their regular price ought to have been”. Plaintiffs are also seeking C$300 per customer in punitive damages. 

The Cure frontman Robert Smith recently branded ‘Platinum’ tickets as a ‘greedy scam’. 

TheTicketingBusiness has reached out to Ticketmaster for comment.